Leveling Jim
by Mistress Anko
Summary: So normally you have to die before you wake up in the past realizing that your life is a video game, but none of the Enterprise crew especially Jim have ever been normal.
1. Chapter 1

Leveling Jim

Sum: So normally you have to die before you wake up in the past realizing that your life is a video game, but none of the Enterprise crew especially Jim have ever been normal.

Jim didn't understand why no one else seemed to understand what he was talking about when he mentioned leveling. It was a pretty basic concept you know? Jim couldn't remember a time when he wasn't aware of it. Yet for some reason his classmates and teachers pretended ignorance and looked at him funny when he said things like, 'I got 15 more points from Gym class.' Or 'Why can't I just read though the textbooks instead of listening to the teacher? I don't get any points when she goes over something I already know.'

Instead it was just one more thing that made him strange and had the other kids avoid him. Jim had tried to talk to his brother about it, but dropped the conversation quickly when he didn't understand it either. His mom was so rarely home that he didn't dare bring it up with her either.

He was slowly being to comprehend what was going on, but as usual his birthday jump brought clarity to a number of topics including this one.

He woke up as he did every morning, but unlike most days the letters weren't an easily dismissible grey, but the bright blue that let him know it was a leveling day.

Before his eyes he read what he had become accustom to going over each morning.

Level 7

Name: James T Kirk

Age: 7

Mental: 5067 Status Locked

Physical: 3821 Status Locked

Social: 973 Status Locked

Settings: Locked

LEVEL UP

Jim took a moment to think about the 33 mental points, 14 physical points, and 3 social points he had earned the other day. You could get points for just about anything so it was actually fairly easy to raise them. The reason his social points were so low compared to the others was because while Jim never lost mental points and only lost physical points if he was sick or injured it was far to easy to lose social points.

Yeah yesterday he had been bored and while he had earned 15 points for making small talk to the lunch lady, he had put glue on a classmate's seat when they got up to the restroom. It wasn't the glue that had lost him 12 points though that was though laughing about it too loudly that lost him 4 and then lying badly to the teacher about it had cost him the other 6. If he had keep his mouth shut and told a better lie he might have earned more points instead, but he just hadn't bothered. After all he had no proof that the points were important. It's not like he was being graded on them or anything.

Even so it was always exciting to level up so Jim mentally acknowledged the LEVEL UP words and the numbers quickly changed in front of his eyes. Not that he was looking at them because the certainly that absolutely no one else could see their levels going up hit him rather suddenly. He also understood a bit more about why it was embarrassing for his brother to play with him in front of his friends and that the cans his Uncle Frank were always drinking had a direct effect on the mans temper.

Jim refocused on the new words.

Level 8

Name: James T Kirk

Age: 8

Mental: 6067 Status Locked

Physical: 4821 Status Locked

Social: 1073 Status Locked

Settings: Locked

PERKS

Jim blinked in surprise. He had never had seen the word PERKS before. He quickly acknowledged it and watched new information come up.

Perks after reaching certain ages, going though special events and mastering individual skills certain Perks are sometimes unlocked.

Perks are meant as advantages that can help you though life, but be warned that certain Perks combined can at times do more harm then good.

PERKS able to unlock 1 out of 2

Intuition

Growth Spurt 

Jim made a face; he thought he knew what Growth Spurts were. It was the thing that made his brother hungrier and have growing pains. That didn't sound fun at all. On the other hand he knew it involved getting taller and that certainly wasn't a bad thing plus he wasn't sure he knew what intuition was even though he might have heard the word before somewhere.

Maybe it would give a definition if he thought about the word.

Intuition is sometimes known as a 6th sense. It allows you to develop a 'gut feeling' about a situation during and sometimes shortly before it is happening. This Perk will level up as you use it. Unlocking the first level will add 20 pts each to your social and situational awareness.

Jim understood getting 20 points to social, but what was situational awareness? No matter how he racked his brain he couldn't figure it out so he focused on the Growth Spurts perk curious about what that would do.

Growth Spurts is what your body goes though in order to become taller and gain more muscle mass. Unlocking the Growth Spurt perk allows your body to enter a sudden Growth Spurt which means gaining 30 physical points and 3 to 5 inches in height in the course of one month instead of a year. Note it is important to eat a larger amount of food then normal during a Growth Spurt. This Perk can only level up once per year and has a total of 5 levels. Note that at age 14 the process starts automatically giving you the added height and points in the course of a year instead of a month. You are only capable of having growth spurts from ages 8- 22.

It took awhile for Jim to decide, but finally he picked the Intuition perk after all he was only 8 and not even close to being the smallest in his class. Maybe he would want that perk next year, but right now being tall didn't seem nearly as interesting as being physic. What? The perk said it if was raised enough you could get feelings for things before they happened and that sounded a lot like predicting the future to Jim. He was definitely going to raise that skill.


	2. Becoming Aware

Becoming aware

It wasn't long before saw the effect his Intuition perk had and not in the way he expected. He thought it had more to do with raising that 'awareness' thing then anything else, after all this was something he was aware of now. Of course it could just be something he had gained with age, but still this was very different.

Suzy Markin Level 9

Andrew Louis Level 12

Jane Peart Level 4

Daniel Robertson Level 6

Jim had never seen his classmates levels before and doing so brought confusion. Jim had assumed if they couldn't see their levels that they just didn't have them, but it didn't seem to be the case. Also while Jim's levels had always stayed fairly close to his age many of the child were much higher or lower in level then there ages showed.

It took a until class change, when they left the Language Arts teacher and went to the Math Teacher that Jim realized the reason for lower levels.

You see this was the time that some of the students went to an alternate class. Jim had never though much about the Special Ed or Special Education class before, there was not anything different about the students that went there as far as how they acted towards Jim so he had never paid them any extra attention.

One of the kids that went their names was Joey Hill and Jim remembered that one of the meaner kids in his class had been sent to the Principals officer for calling Joey retarded. Apparently this meant that Joey gained points slower then others. He was only a level 3 and he was the same age as Jim. Now that Jim thought about he supposed that Joey did have some problems reading aloud to the class, but he thought he was shy like Sara and that's why he stumbled over his words.

Speaking of Sara a very quite girl that Jim though made good grades was at level 17. Jim was rather floored at this as it was the highest level he had seen so far even at the start of school when there had been kids he didn't recognize in other grades running around. Another odd thing was that he couldn't see the adult's levels only the students. Jim would put that thought on hold though. He wanted to know what was different about Sara so he cornered her at recess.

"Hi, Sara! Would you answer a question for me?" He may have spoken too loud because jerked around to face him rather suddenly.

"I guess." She didn't stuttered, but her voice was really quite so Jim lowered his voice as well.

"I was wondering what your favorite thing to do is?" Jim had learned not to mention the points anymore so he figured if he asked about the things that she did often he would find out what caused all of those points.

"Um…" She blushed and Jim realized that she was really kind of pretty when she did that, but then he banished that thought because girls were gross no matter what his brother thought.

"I guess…I mean I like to listen to music and read, but I guess…well I play the piano at home. Mama is a music teacher at the college and she's taught me the basic on a lot of instruments." Sara looked tore between humiliated that she was talking about herself and slightly proud of herself, but only a little. Jim guessed that embarrassed won out because she was getting redder and looking at the ground instead of at Jim, but that could have bee because of Jim's enthusiast.

"Wow that's neat! I mean that's really cool. I'd like to here you play sometime! You should ask the music teacher if you could play in her class."

Sara shook her head rapidly seeming horrified at the idea, but Jim was too busy being elated to focus on her. So that was how you did it. Jim had noticed a jump in points when he started a new skill like learning to ride a bike or when he first learned to write, but he had stopped earning points from those after awhile, after all there was only so good you could get at riding a bike after you lost thee training wheels. Instruments though sounded really hard and Jim knew if took years to get really good at things like music and art at least that's what the teacher said. Most likely sports would have the same effect and any little skill would jump him up at least some, still he bet learning even a little on the piano would increases his points a lot more than learning a trick on a yo-yo.

Well then it was decided.

"Can you teach me about music?" He asked the still blushing girl and that was how it all began.

Of course when I say all, I mean the numerous varieties of skills Jim started to pick up and the levels and perks that went along with them.

Note

So I hope no one thought I was mean about the people that took Special Ed. It just made sense that they would be at lower levels and that Jim would be pretty nonchalant about it. I'm basing his elementary school off of mine and that's how I remember them doing it, with the alternate class I mean. My grandfather actually taught a Special Education class when I was in elementary school. Also as a child you're learning about society slowly and hearing people use words like 'retarded' and then seeing them get in trouble for it is how you learn not to use that language. I am in no way trying to make fun of people with any kind of mental handicap and if I have managed to offend anyone somehow please let me know how I can fix that in my story.


End file.
